Daily Dose: Is the silence at KSU telling?

The silence permeating Kansas State's football coaching search is enough to make day-care providers and librarians ooze with envy.

It also is enough to make at least one journalist — yep, this one — wonder if this thing really can be called a "search."

Now, before I go further, let me admit that I'm no expert when it comes to K-State's quest to find a replacement for Ron Prince. Like many of you, I get most of my information from The Capital-Journal's Austin Meek.

But there isn't much information to get these days. This past week, for instance, the most telling piece of news came from a no-comment comment. When the agent for TCU coach Gary Patterson told Meek he would "rather not" say the situation was the same as a week earlier — when K-State AD Bob Krause and Patterson emphatically denied they'd spoken — he seemed to suggest his client had discussed the job with K-State representatives.

Problem is, it's impossible to determine the true meaning of that remark because it was as awkward as my last paragraph. By the way, sorry about that.

Because a vision softly creeping,

Left its seeds while I was sleeping …

Meanwhile, Krause is saying even less than the agent. Ditto for Patterson.

It's almost as if all parties believe we eventually will forget the initial Internet report that said Patterson was indeed K-State's guy. As Meek noted Friday in his PowerChat blog, "The strategy for everyone involved seems to be 'Keep quiet and hope it goes away.'"

But it isn't going away because nobody's done anything to make it disappear.

Patterson stopped far short of permanently rejecting K-State during his radio tirade a week and a half ago. And there's virtually no evidence to suggest K-State has spoken with anyone other than Patterson — except, perhaps, former Wildcat coach Bill Snyder.

While the Clemson plane has been seen darting all across the country and the Clemson AD has spoken with candidates from Oklahoma to Virginia, Krause has been about as visible as President Bush on election night.

Maybe he's just a master at covert operations. Maybe he's spoken with dozens of candidates but simply doesn't want to toot his horn or tip his hand.

Or, maybe, this is exactly what it appears to be. Maybe it's an attempt on K-State's part to allow time to heal wounds created by the initial Internet report. Maybe it's a way to allow Patterson to finish the season — the Horned Frogs play host to Air Force at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in their regular-season finale — and address his TCU team and fans in an appropriate fashion before admitting he really is interested in coaching his alma mater. Maybe a deal has been in the works for weeks, as so many suspected when Prince was fired with three games remaining.

Who knows? In this situation, it's tough to know what all this silence is saying.

And the vision that was planted in my brain

Still remains

Within the sound of silence.

This week's last-second shot: A special thanks to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel for their assistance with this week's column. I couldn't have done it without them.

Forget the three exhibition losses, now the games count. The Washburn women's basketball team, ranked No. 3 in the WBCA preseason poll, opens the regular season against Missouri-St. Louis at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Lee Arena.

The games really count for the Lady Blues volleyball team as it enters the NCAA Division II Tournament. The Lady Blues begin defense of their South Central Region championship on Friday at White Auditorium in Emporia.

Kansas

As the Kansas football team takes a bye week and licks its physical and psychological wounds, there is (surprise!) a defending national champion basketball team in action, like, for real now. The Jayhawks play Florida Gulf Coast in game two of the CBE Classic on Tuesday. So fans can take the week off before generating newfound hatred for Missouri.

Kansas State

While one season ends, another is just beginning. The Kansas State football team will be playing for little more than pride in its season finale Saturday against Iowa State. The men's basketball team, which improved to 2-0 with Sunday's win over Southeast Missouri State, plays host to Emporia State on Wednesday before traveling to Cleveland State on Saturday.

KC Chiefs

Maybe they'll get lucky. Maybe the Chiefs, who host Buffalo on Sunday in Arrowhead Stadium, can catch the Bills a little leg-weary after they host the Cleveland Browns tonight on Monday Night Football.

The Bills are fading heading into tonight's game after losing three of their last four starts.

Of course, they could get real healthy real quick playing a Chiefs team that has lost 18 of its last 19 starts.

The Bills have lost consecutive games to the Miami Dolphins (25-16), New York Jets (26-17) and New England Patriots (20-10).

LeBron says he's a Manilow man

LeBron James' street cred took a hit when he admitted to teammates that he listens to Barry Manilow.

The Web site for Cleveland radio station WTAM 1100 reported that in the Cleveland Cavaliers' locker room Thursday, it was mentioned that James' longtime friend Carmelo Anthony admitted last year that he had some Manilow music on his iPod.

James said he probably had some Manilow too — though he caused teammates to laugh when he mistakenly referred to the singer as "Brian Manilow."

James dug out his iPod and unveiled evidence — Manilow tunes "Copacabana," "Mandy" and "I Am Your Child." But then James quickly switched back to rap.

Will Notre Dame ax coach?

Will Notre Dame fire Charlie Weis?

That's the question asked by the satirical Web site SportsPickle.com, which offered the following responses:

"No, they almost beat USC three years ago and they are good enough to almost beat them again. ... Yes, do you have any idea the massive ongoing costs of heating a hot seat large enough to fit that man?. ... No, they are losing on the field, but they are winning where it matters: in the classroom ... man, I almost got that out with a straight face. ... Yes, he is taking way too long to set up a massive cheating system like he had in New England.